Accented panel lines?

Sorry, that should be "THEY just rolled....", not "thay".

snakedriver,

I agree with you. Accenting panels & panel lines is WAYYYYYY overdone. I like to build my kits looking like thay just rolled off the showroom floor. An aircraft is clean at least ONCE in its lifetime, don'tcha think?

Call me old fashioned, but some of the panel line "enhancement'" that seems to have
taken the hobby by storm in recent years seems to be overdone. Scaled up, those trenches would make the real thing whistle when it taxied. I do like the pre and post shading, but in moderation. I flew the real stuff in combat and most of the weathering was grime and soot. As soon as bare metal showed the crew chief would paint it with whatever match he could find so his "baby" wouldn't corrode. The things eventually looked like a tin canvas for a 3rd grade finger painting party. Chipped access panels got the paint treatment constantly.
Naval aircraft also get the touch-up treatment on a regular basis. Check out color photos of F-14's and 18's that have been to sea for a while. They look like they are camoflaged in 10 shades of grey. Of course this is due to sun and salt and different paint batches, but other than the gaps between control surfaces and adjoining surfaces, the recesses are not that pronounced. Strangely enough, individual panel lines are quite pronounced on unpainted aircraft. I noticed this in researching 60's and 70's U.S. fighter schemes as I was trying to decide what color scheme I wanted.
Check out camo'd F-100's vs.natural metal 100's. Night and day.
Of course all of this is just the personal opinion of an old dog. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...build yours the way you like it. If you like dark, accented panel lines, so be it. I once saw a F4U Corsiar at a regional IPMS contest that had each panel painted
a different shade of blue. Within the panels, various earthtones had been applied using
pastels to simulate "weathering". The judges were oowing and ahhing and proclaimed this the most stunning aircraft model they had ever seen. It looked like a pair of Emmitt Kelly's pants! No one had the nerve to disagree. That is when I started modelling for myself and quit "contests". Everyone is entitled to an opinion. My advice after 45+
years of glue and plastic is to go with what makes you feel good.

P.S. For you youngsters, Emmitt Kelly was a famous Barnum & Baily Circus clown who wore very loud plaid trousers.

I personally don't plan on doing any panel details when I build my 1/48 Blue Angel. Looking at some pictures even close up it is hard to see the panel lines. I think it has just asmuch to do with the construction and maintenance as it does the paint scheme. I might consisder accenting the lines around the control surfaces, but that is about it.

try running a SHARP lead pencil in the panel lines before you put the final gloss clear coat on. The Hornet's skin panels fit pretty tight, but the pencil line will create the illusion you need.

Dave, even in 1/1 scale the panel lines on Angel F18s and T-Bird F16s are very hard to distinguish. The maintenance crews take pride in making sure those jets are spotless. I wouldn't make the lines too much darker.

I'd use artist oils and mix black and blue to get a darkish blue (darker than the BA blue), thin it a little then apply it with a fine brush in all recesses. Once that's done, use a clean flat soft brush to remove any excess.